The Rayth
by cold wynd
Summary: A mysterious man has appeared in Winding Circle, assaulting the Temple with an army of Dead. Briar, Tris, Daja, and Sandry must combat this horror, who utilizes a new branch of magic never seen before.Chp 3 coming with reviews!
1. Appearance

Hey people. None of these characters cept for the Rayth belong to me...all the others belong to Mrs. Tamora Pierce...

Read this and tell me what you think by REVIEWING!

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A thin man stood on the tiny hillock, concealed partially by the darkening shadows created by the falling sun. He directed his gaze towards the thick stone walls and impressive battlements that surrounded the Winding Circle Temple. Closing his eyes, he moved his hands to form a series of symbols and muttered an incantation. A black burst of fire emanating from a strange talisman arched up, bathing his eyes in shadows. Opening his eyes, he scanned the battlements again, although this time, the spell he had cast made his vision similar to an eagle's, and he noted the movements of the guards on top of the wall. The dark fire vanished, and the man stepped back into the shadows of the tree. The darkness drew itself up and around him, forming a black cloak. The man turned around, and looked at the tree he stood under. Closing his eyes again, he felt the tree's Life magic pulse. Draw a cord of magic from himself, he connected it to the tree, and absorbed its Life, letting the magic run through his veins and replenish his strength. He glanced at the tree again, and strode off silently towards the wall, his shadow cloak hiding him from the sights of watchers. The tree was the only one who bore witness to his leaving, although it was Dead, its life drained by the cloaked man.

Briar Moss sat in the Hub, eating one of Dedicate Gorse's best pies. Across from him, his friends Trisana Chandler, or Tris, and Daja Kisubo the Trader sat. Tris was absorbed in her book, and Daja was polishing a bright metal shield with a rose emblem in the middle she had crafted at the forge.

"Look Briar," said Daja. "It's a briar. You want it?"

"Do I ever not want anything?" Briar asked.

"No," admitted Daja. "But you can't have this. It's for Rosethorn's birthday."

Briar laughed. Rosethorn, a plant mage, had the bad luck of a birthday on Midwinter.

"Oh well, in THAT case," Briar said. "Do you want a piece of my pie?"

Daja inspected the pie, and grinned.

"Sure, I'll take some," she said.

"Well you can't have any," Briar grinned evilly. "It's for me."

Daja made a face.

"How could I have not seen that coming?"

Briar drew a brown leather bag out of his pockets.

"Look what I got, Daja. New seeds from a Trader caravan at Summersea! They're a rare plant specimen, and Rosethorn doesn't have one of these yet!"

Daja knew how attached Rosethorn and Briar were to plants. She could not understand how they liked the scratchy vines and sneeze-giving flowers, and how they disliked the comforting, cool touch of metal. Daja sighed. _Each to their own_, she thought.

"Briar, I think Rosethorn is in the cottage," voiced Tris.

Briar and Daja looked up, surprised. Tris never stopped reading books unless someone really needed her.

"I thought you were reading, Coppercurls," said Briar, using his nickname for her.

"I was," answered Tris. "But I'm not going to forgot Rosethorn's birthday. So go give her your present. Oh, and you can give her mine too."

Briar stood up from the table.

"Four years, and all I am to you is a delivery boy," he complained.

Taking his bag, and Tris's gift of a book about plants, Briar set off towards Discipline, the cottage in which they lived in.

Briar slowly opened the door to Discipline cottage. He walked quietly, as he had practiced many times before when he was Roach, and when he was in service to the Thief Lord. He listened for the sounds of Rosethorn's trowel sifting through dirt, or the pounding of feet on the stairs. But there was only a faint murmuring, as if a person was talking. He edged closer to the stairwell, careful not to bump into anything. He could now hear Rosethorn's distinct voice, and another voice. It was a man's voice, as far as he could make out. Then there was silence. Briar looked up the stairway, puzzled.

He made to walk up the stairs, but as he started for them, a horrible scream sounded from upstairs. One thought pulsed through Briar's mind. _Rosethorn!_ Briar remembered the blue pox, in which hundreds of Summersea citizens had died and how close Rosethorn had been to death. He dashed up the stairs and flung open the door of Rosethorn's workshop. Rosethorn lay on the ground, her normally bronze and shining skin a pallid gray. Over her stood a thin man, his cloak wriggling and blending with the shadows of the room. The man whirled around, and pointed at Briar. A long, snake-like cord of black shadow arched outwards from the man's cloak. Briar managed to dodge to one side, and the shadow-whip punched a sizable hole through the door.

The hemp ties around Briar's wrist knives loosened, and Briar felt the knives slip into his hands. He hurled one at the man's head, and the other at his stomach, hoping to catch him off guard. But the man moved with an unnatural quickness, dodging one blade and flicking his hand at the next, so a shadow-whip swung out and knocked it away. Briar cursed, then delved deep into his magic. Reaching out, he found an ivy plant hanging off the wall, just outside of the window. _That will do._ Briar drew a cord of magic, and placed it within the plant. He forced a good amount of magic into the vines, and collapsed the growth of ten years into seconds. A huge vine crashed through the window, slamming the thin man in the back and catapulting him to the other side of the room. But almost immediately, the black shadows that surrounded the man streaked up in the shape of swords, slicing and hacking away at the vines.

Briar redoubled his efforts, and more vines shot through the windows, scattering glass and wrapping around the thin man. Suddenly, all the shadow-swords shrank back into the pool of darkness on the floor. Thinking he had won, Briar relaxed his grip on the man, and he sank to the floor. The think man laughed. And then he spoke, his voice piercing Briar's thoughts.

"Fool! Do you really think to break my power with...plants? Observe the power of the Rayth!"

The Rayth closed his eyes, and suddenly the edges of the vines holding him turned brown, as if they were dead. Briar looked at the spectacle in confusion. _Impossible! He's...draining the life out of the ivy! _Briar watched as all of the vines turned brown, and the whole plant's get sucked away. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and he realized the Rayth was absorbing his magic too, because he was connected to the plant. He gasped, breaking his connection, but the pain was still great and his knees buckled. The Rayth opened his eyes and smiled. He made for the boy, but then glanced at the prone body of Rosethorn. It would give the boy more pain if he killed the teacher first. A shadow-sword rose up out of the frothing pool of darkness at the Rayth's feet. It swung downwards towards Rosethorn's neck. Briar cried out, but he couldn't move in time. _No!_

Briar saw a flash of light; one that burned him eyes to watch, and then blacked out from the pain.

Tris stood in the doorway of Rosethorn's workroom, surveying the seen. She and Daja had wondered what was taking so long, and Daja had gone to find Frostpine while Tris went to the cottage. When she had reached Rosethorn's workroom, she had seen Briar fall in pain. Angry, she reached up and pulled off two of her pins in her "lightning braids" in her hair, and released a good-sized bolt at the man standing next to Rosethorn. The bolt caught the man squarely in the chest, the impact throwing him against a large shelf and knocking several bottles of vile smelling fluid down on his head.

"Another one of you brats?" he shrieked. "I'll kill you all!"

Tris grabbed another pin off her hair, and pooled together her lightning energy. But before she could throw a bolt at him, a dark shadow in the shape of a lightning bolt raced at her head from the dark black pool at the man's feet. But the shadow-bolt hit halfway, blocked by a shining shield with spell marks along a rose emblem in the center engraved in it. The shield was held by Daja, who had dove past Tris through the open doorway. The Rayth screamed in rage, and multiple shadow-arms materialized out of the floor, streaking towards Tris and Daja.

The arms hit Daja first, bowling the big girl over and twisting around. Tris glanced at her friend, and then grabbed all the "cyclone pins" put of her hair. A tremendous power welled up inside of her, and bottles and papers took to the air. The cyclone grew bigger, swirling around and blowing the shadow-arms off of Daja and away from her and Briar's body. The Rayth shouted, then took a step into the cyclone, and was picked up by the strong winds. He slammed into an airborne table, and fell out of the window.

Daja dashed over to the window, and watched the Rayth stand up. He gazed up at the window, and then raised a talisman above his head. Black fire engulfed his body, and then he was gone. Daja sighed, and looked around the room. Tris was bent over Rosethorn's body, and Briar was slumped in the corner. There were bottles and different substances strewn throughout the room, and there were large holes in the walls where various objects had been hurled at the walls in Tris's cyclone. They would have a lot of explaining to do.

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Review please, I'm open to criticism, because I personally think I suck at writing...this is to improve my skills. 


	2. Mass Dead

Second chapter up...lol, enjoy, the two of you who read this...and REVIEW disclaimer: These characters, cept for the Rayth, totally belong to the goddess Tamora Pierce. :)>

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Deep within a cold, dark cave nestled within the rocky cliff face, a small mouse scuttled around a half-opened knapsack, searching for small tidbits of food. Suddenly a large plume of black fire emanated from the ground, sending the mouse scurrying back into its small burrow. A thin man stepped out of the fire, clutching a strange talisman to his chest. The talisman's center was a large, oval rock that shimmered with a thousand colors at its center. The rock was clasped by three talons hewed from black obsidian. The man, known as the Rayth, strode over to his knapsack and upended its contents onto the floor. His face twisted into a violent frown.

"Those foolish brats will rue the day they attacked me! My plans have been set back for at least a fortnight now, because that boy had to disrupt to leeching spell. Now the trap is not set, and the sickness cannot spread unto the other mages! But no matter. They will still all die at my hands!" the Rayth muttered.

A shadow shifted in the corner, and a low snarl sounded from the shadows. The Rayth twisted his head, and smiled.

"Yes, that would work, my Pet! We could send the dead to do our work...there are many dead things in the sea! Yes..."

A huge, wolf-like shape stalked out of the shadows, its bulk covering enough floor space for two men lying down end to end. Four, huge black claws jutted out from its monstrous paws. Two razor sharp fangs, each as thick as the Rayth's forearms hung out of the beast's mouth. The Rayth stood up, and twisted his hands around the talisman. A stream of black fire shot out of his hands and wrapped around the beast's head. It opened its mouth, and a human voice sounded.

"My master, the sea around the Duke's kingdom holds many dead beasts. Raise them, they will be able to attack Winding Circle and retrieve the Book!"

The Rayth narrowed his eyes.

"It is protected by many ancient magics, Shuriken; it would not be wise to think about freeing the Book of the Dead until we have captured Winding Circle and destroyed the most powerful mages," said the Rayth

The wolf-beast Shuriken nodded its head. The Rayth muttered a short incantation, and the fire that enabled Shuriken to speak flowed back into the talisman.

"Now go back to your corner, beast. I must prepare the spells if I shall attack Winding Circle soon."

The Rayth retrieved a large, black, locked chest from a dank corner of the cage and opened it. He picked up a small black book with silver runes on the front.

"This shall do...and all those mages at Summersea will pay for causing me pain, starting with those brats and their teachers!"

Briar Moss sat next to Rosethorn's bed in the infirmary, his hand resting on her forehead. Her skin was a pale gray, and she was in a coma. Briar glanced towards Daja, Tris, and Sandry, who were all crowded around the foot of the bed.

"Can you feel her magic?" Sandry asked.

"Barely," Briar answered. "Usually her power is like a giant oak, casting mine into a shadow. But now...it seems like it's just a dying tree..."

Briar sighed. Ever since the thin cloaked man who had called himself the Rayth had seemingly drained the life out of Rosethorn, she had been like this. That had been a week and a half ago. A healer mage came through the door, holding a basket full of medicinal bottles and food.

"You must get out, now. I'm going to cast a spell to try to wake her, and it will take up most of the magic in the room, including yours if you don't leave," said the healer.

The four allowed themselves to be ushered outside, and Briar walked to the thick stone walls that surrounded Winding Circle while the others went to inform Niko, Frostpine, and Lark of Rosethorn's condition. Briar sat on the edge of a battlement, his feet dangling into space. A guard patrolling the wall noticed Briar.

"Hey you, get off there! You're gonna fall!" he shouted.

Briar turned and looked at the man.

"Nothing can happen to me. Watch," he replied.

Briar shoved off the battlement, falling into the air. The guard's eyes opened wide. He gasped, and was about to shout for helped when Briar rose up, sitting on a pedestal of intertwined plants. He leapt from his organic platform back onto the wall.

"See?" Briar said smugly. "Nothing can happen."

Just then, a huge dark shadow in the form of a wolf appeared behind Briar, knocking him to the ground and driving the air out of his lungs. The wolf turned to the guard, slashed at his throat with lightning speed. Hot red blood spurted from the fatal wound, drenching the wolf and the stones. He turned back to Briar, who was struggling to his feet. The wolf opened its mouth, and a strange, low voice sounded in the air.

"So you are one of the small ones who attacked the Master."

Briar let his power flow into the plants surrounding and growing on the wall, and the plants shivered, ready to defend Briar at a moments notice. Briar answered the wolf.

"That Rayth man, correct? The fool will pay for what he did to Rosethorn!"

The wolf let out a grating laugh.

"A puny runt like you cannot hope to even scratch the Rayth! I see you quiver with fear at the sight of me, Shuriken! But I am not here to kill you. Oh no, I could have done that when you first foolishly jumped off this wall. I am here to deliver a message! The Rayth will not be so forgiving next time he confronts you, boy, so prepare yourself for a slow and painful death!

Briar sneered. His anger of Rosethorn's plight came rushing out.

"If your master is so powerful, why did he not come here and kill me now? Or is because he can't? Your master is nothing but a sniveling coward!" Briar shouted. He didn't care anymore what happened to himself.

Shuriken's body quivered in fury.

"You will regret those words, you fool!"

With that, Shuriken lunged at Briar. But Briar was ready, and rolled out of the way. The hemp ties that kept his wrist knives strapped to his forearms loosened at his will, and Briar hurled one of the knives at Shuriken's head. The knife struck Shuriken on the head, leaving a bloody mark. The wolf-beast howled in fury.

"Fool! That is nothing! Your insignificant little weapons cannot break the protections of Great Magic!"

The wolf-beast opened his mouth, and a blast of black fire came forth, scorching stone and bringing a sizzling wave of heat. Briar gasped at the intensity of the heat, and then jumped to the side to avoid the oncoming fire. _How can I beat him? He's stronger than me, lightning quick, and has breathe that can destroy anything in its path!_ Briar pooled his magic into several plants hanging off the sides of the wall. He collapsed a decade of growth into them, and large thorny vines and leaves burst over the sides of the battlements, trapping Shuriken's legs and immobilizing him. But the wolf twisted and struggled, and the vines and stems broke and yielded to his throes. The wolf laughed.

"Mere plants cannot hold me! I am many times stronger than the strongest man! The Rayth has answered my summons, and he shall kill you now!"

A tall pillar of black fire erupted from the stone, and a thin man clothed in an ever-moving cloak of shadows stepped from it. Fear gripped Briar, and he had a cold feeling in his gut. The Rayth glanced at Shuriken, and pointed at the wolf. Black fire streamed from the talisman and surrounded the wolf, and Shuriken's shape slowly changed. After what seemed like an eternity to Briar, the fire receded, and Shuriken stood there, now in the form of a huge man with a wolf's head.

"My master!" it cried, and Shuriken bowed down to the Rayth. Briar felt sweat running down his face. _There's nothing I can do...unless..._Briar reached out with his magic, and found his vine of power connecting him to his foster-sisters. **_Coppercurls! Daja! Sandry! Help me, I'm on the wall!_** The girls answered him at once, and he felt Daja and Tris's power growing closer to the wall, and Sandry's head toward Discipline Cottage. A gravelly voice caught Briar's attention. The Rayth was speaking.

"The first brat who attacked me, sitting at my feet! I shall administer a fitting punishment...Death!"

The Rayth raised his left hand, clutched his talisman in his right hand, and muttered an incantation. A blast of black fire arched down, bringing a certain death for Briar...

A white shape hurtled out of nowhere, slamming into the Rayth and knocking him off the battlements and into the ground far, far below. Little Bear growled, and looked up, his tail wagging happily. Briar started to get up, and then looked in horror at Shuriken, who was poised above Little Bear, his claws swinging down in a death slash.

"Little Bear move!" Briar screamed.

Shuriken brought his claws down with such force that they knocked Little Bear in the battlements. The dog's body slid down, leaving a bloody trail. Tris's scream of fury sounded, and a colossal lighting bolt smashed into Shuriken's chest, blowing a hole clean through his body. But Shuriken snarled, and lunged towards Tris, who was exhausted after such a large use of power. Several large vines shot towards Shuriken from the battlements, wrapping around his arms and legs. Before he could struggle to break free, the vines lifted him up and hurled him off the wall into the beaches below.

Briar ran over to the edge of the wall, and looked down. He gasped as he viewed the beaches. Thousands of dead, dripping bodies covered the shores. A large circle had formed around the Rayth, who was looking up at Briar.

"See my might!" the Rayth screamed. "You will all die!"

Around Briar, other mages, Dedicates and Novices alike, were looking at the beaches in horror. Tris pointed at a section of the dead army.

"Look," she said, "there are the pirates we slew! And there are the boats!"

Tris was right. A fleet of grimy, decaying boats was rising up out of the ocean, crewed by Dead beings. Niko, Tris's teacher, pushed to the front of the crowd, followed by the Honored Moonstream. Dedicate Skyfire, the dedicate in charge of Winding Circle's defenses, was not far behind.

"What in the name of Emelan is happening...?" Moonstream's voice trailed off.

"Gods above," Niko whispered, and he made a God-circle on his chest.

Skyfire glanced down at the crowded mass of Dead, and immediately started barking orders.

"Water Dedicates, see if you can't get some medical supplies here! Air and Fire, protect the wall! Cast a shield if you can! Earth, assist the Water and try to use some of the plants down there as defenses!"

Skyfire glanced at Tris, who was bent over Little Bear's body.

"One of you healers, take that dog and see if you can mend his wounds."

He looked down at the beach again, and saw a group of the dead starting to hand out swords and shields crafted from the shadows at the Rayth's feet.

Skyfire turned back and headed down the steps to the Hub to get a decent meal before the confusion started.

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Review...PLEASE!  



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